A different perspective on global and local issues not the headline news

Kimba Woods

Michael Cohen is both a lawyer and a business man. Search warrants were served on Mr. Cohen because he is being investigated for possible campaign finance violations, bank fraud and wire fraud. It is part of a federal grand jury investigation which was empaneled months ago. On Monday, Mr. Cohen lost in his request to have all items seized in the raid returned to him. It was established in court, that in the last year and a half, Cohen provided legal advice to only three clients, Donald Trump, Elliott Broidy and Sean Hannity. Sean Hannity denied he was Mr. Cohen’s client.

In their search, investigators also sought to obtain records relating to Cohen’s ownership of taxi medallions — high-value assets that are often used as collateral for loans, according to people familiar with the matter. The value of the medallions was sharply dropping in value, as a result of Uber and Lyft. Between April and June 2017, the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance filed seven tax warrants against Cohen and his wife for $37,434 in unpaid taxi taxes due to the MTA.[13]

Prosecutors are following the money on this one. The $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels, might be the most visible sign of shady business, but I suspect there are far bigger targets. Elliott Broidy needed Cohen’s help to hide the fact that his affair with Playboy model, Shera Bachard, who he made pregnant, and Cohen arranged a 1.3 million dollar payment to hush up the affair. The child was aborted.

According to the New York Times, Mr. Broidy was a national deputy chairman of the R.N.C.’s finance committee, a title he shared with Mr. Cohen. Mr. Broidy is the second member of that committee to resign this year amid questions involving their behavior with women and deals to silence them.

So, how big is this swamp? Here is more from the New York Times article:

During the wide-ranging October meeting, Mr. Broidy raised numerous topics high on the agenda of the United Arab Emirates, a country that has given his security company a contract worth hundreds of millions of dollars. He pitched the president on a paramilitary force his company was developing for the U.A.E. and urged Mr. Trump to fire Rex W. Tillerson, then the secretary of state, who the U.A.E. believed was insufficiently tough on its rival Qatar.

The documents show that Mr. Broidy has worked closely with George Nader, an adviser to the U.A.E. and a witness in the special counsel’s investigation, to help steer Trump administration policy on numerous issues in the Middle East. Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, is examining Mr. Nader’s possible role in funneling Emirati money to finance Mr. Trump’s political efforts. There is no indication that Mr. Mueller’s team is looking into Mr. Broidy.

In 2009, Mr. Broidy pleaded guilty to charges that he made nearly $1 million worth of illegal gifts to New York State officials in order to win an investment of $250 million from the state’s public pension fund. Among the gifts were trips to Israel and Italy, payouts to officials’ relatives and girlfriends and an investment in one relative’s production of a low-budget movie called “Chooch.”

It is also reported that there are no emails between Donald Trump and Michael Cohen. Trump apparently doesn’t use email.

If true, can you imagine the gall of Broidy, wanting to get rid of the secretary of state, because of his business dealings in the UAE. Our environmental policies, have been sold out to the fossil fuel companies, but was Trump also trading in our relations with other Middle East countries to help support his donors? Broidy was also on Trump’s inaugural ceremony committee, where millions were unaccounted for according to MSNBC’s Rachel Madlow and others (see link).

I’m honestly not that interested in Stormy Daniel’s hush money contract, or Elliot Broidy’s affair, but the Middle East connections, by way of George Nader. This might help Mueller’s team.

At this point, it is a legal battle between the president’s lawyers who want to do anything possible to impede the review by the “taint team” verses the Department of Justice who want to know to get the team’s review done as soon as possible. Judge Kimba Woods has stated that case law on confidentiality, applies equally, be it the president of the United States, or the man on the street. This has also been the opinion of the Supreme Court, dating back to claims of Executive Privilege in the days of Nixon and Watergate. Judge Woods will likely decide soon whether a Special Master should be appointed.